Houma area buzzing with activity

Houma seems to be on national news a lot these days, in part, because it is a major oil town close to the gulf oil spill but perhaps just far enough away to not be considered highly vulnerable, as are some other critical locations that are closer to the coast and the spill.  It is the logical location for what has now become the BP's Louisiana Command Center (formerly, BP training center), one of the key centers where Admiral Thad Allen is updated, and is seen issuing some of his press releases.  The command center is located at the crossroads of Hwy 30 and Hwy 311, just north of Houma...and only ten minutes from where we live.  There is major building activity going on behind Houma's major mall strip that would make one think that Houma is currently in a rapid expansion mode.  There is a tremendous amount of buzz and activity in Houma, right now.  Mixed with this activity is a strong sense of uncertainty and concern with hurricane season now bearing down on us.

A brand new $22M Marriott Courtyard is being built right across from where I work, and is well ahead of schedule...to be opened later this fall (see picture).  When we walk out of our office building, and look in the direction of our sugarcane plants that are on the crossing carts, the Marriott Courtyard now seemingly looms over our plants, and catches our attention.   Right now, our plants are being rolled into dark houses each evening to create a "tropical" daylength that stimulates them to go into a flowering mode.  They are on schedule to flower beginning in late September.  Without a photoperiod treatment, they wouldn't flower until December, and then only sporadically, if at all, and our seed production would be far below what it is with the photoperiod treatment. We just recently built a new photoperiod / crossing house complex, and none to soon.  This year, the on-site facility is a backup, as we "break in" our new facility at our farm nine miles away.  With all the building going on around us at our main Station, incident light will make it increasingly difficult to create the photoperiod effect needed to get our plants to flower when we want them to.

It's official...our house is for sale

...and so is everyone else's...

Tew Reunion in Salt Lake City

Last Saturday, on June 12, descendants of William Thomas Tew / Clara Elizabeth Snow Tew (my paternal grandparents) enjoyed a day together, renewing old friendships, and, in many cases, developing new ones.  The cool, rainy weather prevented us from meeting outdoors, as originally planned, so we met indoors in the recreational area of a large LDS church building, the one that Patricia (my niece) and Dan Potts regularly attend.  All in all, there were about 130 attendees.  We had plenty of food.  Brad Berntson (my nephew) and his wife, Jane, brought  a large commercial scale grill to the event in a trailer, and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs outdoors.  Louise Tew (my sister-in-law) and her daughter, Patricia, did most of the work preparing for the reunion, handling invitations, program agenda, facility reservations, decorations, name tags, meat and condiments,and so on.  They did an outstanding job and are to be commended for their effort.  There are others who substantially contributed.

We had descendants representing all but one of Grandpa and Grandma Tew's seven children who are long since deceased.  My father, 2nd youngest, died 32 years ago (1978), at age 78.  At age 62, I am the youngest living grandchild of Grandpa and Grandma Tew.  At this point, only 15 of 44 grandchildren are still alive, so this reunion was of special importance to those 7 who were able to attend.  Three of Uncle Will's 7 children are living, of which Roy and Dean were in attendance.  All of Aunt Reba's 6 children are deceased; this was the only line not represented at the reunion.  Only one of Uncle Warren's 9 children is living, namely Vivian Dredge; she and several members of her extended family were in attendance.  Three of Uncle Bird's 7 children are living, of which none were in attendance.  Two of Uncle Bryan's 7 children are living, of which neither were in attendance.  Six of my father Burton's 7 children are still living, and Burton Jr., Norma, Carolyn, and I  were in attendance.  Aunt Melba had one child who is deceased. 

We set up a large family tree for attendees to put their family pictures/information on.  Highlights of the reunion for me included the terrific lunch, a great group picture, the family tree, senior member(s) of each of the seven family lines bringing us up to date on their own family lines, and a pinata for the kids at the end.  My main regret is that I didn't get a chance to visit with my niece Heidi, who I was later told was actually at the reunion for a short time with her mother, my sister Norma.  I was also disappointed that neither my brother Fred, his wife Sandra, nor any of their 10 children were able to attend the reunion.  From our family, in addition to myself, Julie and Matt and their three children (Plymouth, IN), and Neal (SLC, UT) attended.  Alan (SLC) was in Portland and Lori and James (Loveland, CO) were unable to attend.  Judy stayed in Louisiana; we couldn't financially justify both of us going.

Vegetable Day at the USDA Sugarcane Research Facility

This is the second straight year that the Master Gardeners in our region and the LSU Extension Service have chosen to grow their display garden at our facility.  We are ideally located for this.  The Southern belles who attended, prepared some wonderful dishes that included 1) grilled vegetables seasoned with low-sodium taco seasoning and olive oil, 2) green tomato pie, and 3) pineapple zucchini cake.  Master gardeners, LSU extension service personnel, and our own Eric Pitre, a senior technician at our Station who lives on site across from where the garden was planted, gave some terrific presentations.  I was very impressed, and learned a lot.  Dr. Paul White, a recently hired scientist at our Station, won the largest tomato contest with a 24+ oz. tomato.  Good job, Paul!

Memorial Day Weekend in Tennessee

Over the long weekend, Judy and I visited our future home site, and marked precisely where we wanted our new home to be located on our property.  It didn't take all that long to accomplish our main purpose for going on this trip, which left us time to visit with Grant Miller and Micah & Stephanie Spiracio, future neighbors.  We borrowed a 4-wheeler (ATV) from Grant.  I got the hang of driving it after a short while.  Judy & I took the 4-wheeler on some of the timber roads above our property.  I have to admit that it would be a blast to own one of these, so as to be able to get around on the back roads, of which there are so many in this area.  We went to church on Sunday in Kimball, where we met Grant's brother, George Miller, also a future neighbor.  George is presently in the midst of building his home inside the Sewanee Creek development.  I posted a comment that explains the second photo.

While in Tennessee, we explored a couple of caves.  Not far from where we were staying in Kimball, TN is Russell Cave, run by the National Park Service.  It is actually in Alabama, and more of an overhang used by early Indian dwellers than what one thinks of when thinking of a true cave.  After visiting Russell Cave, we had enough time to go to Raccoon Mountain Caverns near Chattanooga, and go through part of the extensive cave system there.  Our tour, called the Crystal Palace Tour, lasted 45 minutes.  For the more adventurous, there are wild cave tours that go much further into the cave.  These, of course involve a fair amount of crawling, and getting through some pretty tight spaces, but it is apparently well worth the effort, for those fit and thin enough to do it.

On our return trip, we took a different route that took us through Huntsville, Decatur, and Moulton, AL, then through the William B. Bankhead National Forest (the largest forest in Alabama) to the town of Natural Bridge, AL, where we stopped and visited privately owned Natural Bridge Park.  The natural bridge formation within the park is the largest natural arch east of the Rockies.  The owner wanted to make sure that we saw the American Indian stone formation that he claimed, "winks at the ladies" and "nods at the men."  From Natural Bridge, we went directly south to Tuscaloosa and on home on I-59.